President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court squeezed Republicans into a corner and fortified his own party’s position with key constituencies.
» Name: Sonia Sotomayor
» Age-birthdate-location: 54; June 25, 1954; New York, N.Y.
» Experience: judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 1998-present; judge, U.S. District Court Southern District of New York, 1992-1998; private practice, New York City, 1984-1992; assistant district attorney, New York County, 1979-1984
» Education: B.A., Princeton University, 1976; J.D., Yale Law School, 1979.
» Family: Divorced; no children.
Obama, relaxed and smiling in the East Room, praised Sotomayor’s “sterling credentials” and compelling personal story, with a nod to her prospects for making history as the court’s first Hispanic justice.
“When Sonia Sotomayor ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court of the land, America will have taken another important step towards realizing the ideal that is etched above its entrance: equal justice under the law,” Obama said.
Sotomayor’s nomination presents a pointed dilemma to Republicans. The GOP had hoped to work past the bruised feelings of the recent immigration battle and make new political inroads with Hispanic voters.
In opposing her, Republicans also would risk losing more ground with female voters. For Obama’s part, the nomination solidifies his standing with women and Hispanic voters, and mollifies Latino leaders who had been unhappy with the lack of representation in his administration.
Sotomayor’s nomination “brings an outstanding jurist with more experience than any Supreme Court nominee in 100 years along with the experience of growing up in a low-income Latino family,” said Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
With Democrats close to a 60-vote majority in the Senate, it appeared likely that Republicans in Congress would slow down Sotomayor’s confirmation and refuse to be rushed, rather than launch a bruising fight they probably couldn’t win.
But party standard-bearers outside of Congress, including at least two — Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee — eyeing a challenge to Obama in 2012, stepped up with strong opposition to the president’s nominee.
Some conservative groups also prepared for battle. Wendy Long, counsel to the Judicial Confirmation Network, said Sotomayor “reads racial preferences and quotas into the Constitution.”
“She is far more of a liberal activist than even the current liberal activist Supreme Court,” Long said.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said extracongressional opposition was anticipated, and he dismissed some of it as “interest group fundraising” efforts.
“We all understand that there is to some degree a cottage industry that revs up during these sorts of confirmation hearings, the White House gets that,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think anybody that’s spent any appreciable time in this town doesn’t understand that.”
Mindful of vetting breakdowns that sidetracked earlier nominations, the White House took few chances with Sotomayor. In addition to reviewing her public statements and legal opinions, the administration’s team reportedly scoured her tax history and consulted with doctors about whether diabetes would affect her service.
Obama took advantage of the congressional recess to announce his nominee — minimizing the television presence of Republican opponents and seizing control of the day’s news cycle.
The White House was in full sales mode throughout the day, sending high-value administration officials outside to network cameras in the driveway, to pitch Sotomayor’s credentials and repeat key administration talking points.
“We expect fair hearings,” White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told MSNBC. “We would not like to see this dragged out for political reasons or because right-wing groups want to raise money — we would like to see this not turn into a political circus.”
